| Part One by B.J.Samuel Twilight raced around the corner and held his breath. The charge indicator on his gun showed that it was now completely empty. He flipped open a commline to his first operative. "Laser? You still out there?" A double beep indicated that Laser had been stationary for over ten minutes - and was therefore presumed dead. He opened a second line. "Twilight to Solar - " a double beep cut him off. He was on his own. "Twilight to main base. We've got two operatives down, and I'm out of zap. You have to get us out of here - repeat, you have to get us out of here." He signed off, and sent the coded message. Figuring the troops might have moved on from his colleague's positions he located the nearest one, broke cover, and raced towards it. If either of his friends were still viable life forms, he would not be leaving them down here to die. Laser wasn't too far away, but Twilight didn't bother to get too close. All that remained intact was his homing beacon, and the communications array on his helmet. These were the strongest components, to allow soldiers to to call for help even if the rest of their armour was gone. Laser himself was in pieces. Twilight gulped down his revulsion and turned to home in on Solar's position. An ominous, undulating whine grew in volume behind him. In the split second it took him to process the sensory information the small, lethal, airborne bomb had locked in and started tracking him as a target. He took off at a prodigious speed, not bothering to look behind him. Fast as he ran, the whine still seemed to be gaining on him, then he hurled himself round the edge of a communications tower, and the sharp corner momentarily took it by surprise. It was soon onto him again. Even if his weapon had been functional at this point, the bomb was too close to destroy now. It had chosen the first warm-blooded, bipedal lifeform it identified as not wearing a tag, and now it was destined to hit its target and explode - utterly regardless of anything. The tag. If he could get hold of one he would no longer be a target. The Alliance weren't sure what they were - none had been retrieved for analysis - but the bombs their enemy used would not target somebody wearing one. Unfortunately, these tags self-destructed when a renegade soldier was killed, efficiently preventing it from falling into the wrong hands. Taking the enemy alive was simply not an option - particularly when they were shooting to kill. He headed straight up the steep, icy side of a tower, hoping that on higher ground his radar's range would be improved enough to locate anything which might be of use to him. Far in the distance he located a weapons beacon. He might find a powerup module for this gun there. It was a longshot all right - but he dived off the top of the rise and pounded towards it anyway. The whine pursued at an uncomfortable distance, sometimes becoming louder, and sometimes tailing behind until he was sure he'd lost it, then gaining rapidly again. He fell upon the small locker buried under the snow, and tore at the catch on its front. After one last, desperate pull the ice around it gave way and it flew open, but by then the bomb was almost on top of him, so he rolled swiftly to his feet and started running in a wide circle that would put some space between it and him, then return him to the weapons locker. As he passed it next he skidded low, and caught up the only module from within. Snapping it onto his weapon as he regained momentum, he headed towards the nearest soldier on his scanner with little idea of what he was going to do once he got there. He held the gun up before him to read the gauge - less than quarter power - roughly twenty shots. That was hardly enough to fry a hotdog, but it was going to have to do. Drawing in on the trooper, he headed for the cover of trees behind it, still very much aware of the pursuit of his compact but deadly little friend. The soldier appeared to be laying mines, but not for long. Twilight could already see the proximity indicator flashing on the pack behind the other that was as yet unheeded. He stopped for a heartbeat to assess the situation. Raising his weapon, he knew he was going to have to aim precisely, and very quickly. The whine was ever approaching. Placing the crosshairs on the ground charge the soldier had just set, he compensated as best he could for all the conditions, then lifted the gun slightly, setting the charge just below the sight. He discharged every drop of energy from it in one shot, and the charge exploded, blowing a chunk out of the side of the trooper who was only now turning to find his opponent, having noticed the indicator. Twilight broke cover and hurtled towards the injured soldier, knocking him to the ground and tearing away the pack at his back, which must somewhere contain the the tag. All this done in one sweep, he started running again, and didn't turn round for the massive explosion as the bomb happily blew up the first thing it came across without a tag. Twilight didn't bother dissecting the alien pack to find the tag. He simply threw off his own and shouldered the new one as best he could, damaged as it was. Hopefully it would keep him safe long enough to assess Solar, and for reinforcements to arrive - providing he could also evade the enemy ground troops weaponless... |